This stunning graphic novel tell 4 extraordinary tales of heroism set during the World War II Normandy landings on D-Day, June 6th 1944 The biggest military operation of the Second World War. 6th June 1944 - D-Day, the allies launch a great offensive in Normandy in order to definitively rid Europe of the Nazi terror. The strategic and human scale of the operation, led by General Eisenhower, is unrivalled. No less than 160,000 men will be parachuted and land on five beaches in the northern France. Thus begins Operation Overlord
The story behind D-Day begins in 1939 when Nazi Germany, led by Adolf Hitler, attacked Poland and ignited World War Two. The following year, the Germans occupied France and Western Europe and launched a vicious air war against Britain. In 1941, they invaded the Soviet Union. Seemingly unstoppable, the Nazis now held virtually all of Europe. They imposed a ruthless system of control and unleashed the horror of the Holocaust. However, by 1943, the tide had begun to turn in favor of the Allies, the forces opposed to Germany. In the east, despite huge losses, the Soviets began to force the Germans back.
Book Description: Pat was a teenage boy who came of age during the tumultuous times of World War II. He entered the Army during his eighteenth year as a voluntary inductee. Basic training was administered at Ft. Bragg N. C. After basic training, he was scheduled to be shipped to the South Pacific as a member of a pack artillery unit but an untimely bout of the flu forced a change in his assignment. He was placed in a replacement pool, a pool of young soldiers who would step into the vacancies caused by the inevitable casualties that would occur during the planned invasion of Europe, codenamed “Operation Overlord.” Pat shipped over seas in a small wooden vessel that once carried fruit from South America to Boston. It had been requisitioned to carry troops to Great Britain. It was a very large convoy that included Pat ́s ship. The speed of the crossing was no greater than the speed of the slowest vessel in the fleet. The crossing took weeks in a constant attempt to evade German U Boats by an erratic course across the Atlantic. The port of debarkation was Liverpool, England. A troop train transported the soldiers from there to a military establishment in Cardiff, Wales. Here the soldiers continued to train and bide their time, waiting for the inevitable invasion of Europe. Soon the soldiers were transported to the Channel Coast where they remained on standby alert for the invasion to commence. D Day, June 6, 1944, arrived, Operation Overlord was unleashed. The gruesome casualties of Omaha Beach were endured and the beach head prevailed. Six days after D Day, the contingent of replacements that included Pat landed on Omaha Beach and fulfilled the purpose of their existence. They replaced the soldiers that had been killed or wounded in the preceding six days. Pat was assigned to the first howitzer gun crew of A Battery, 15th Field Artillery Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division. The Fifteenth Battalion was the artillery support and a part of the 9th Combat Team (9th CBT) that included the 9th Infantry Regiment of the 2nd Infantry Division. Pat learned his job as a 105 howitzer gun crew member as A Battery fired their guns in support of the 9th Infantry, moving from position to position through the French hedgerow country. He learned his job well and eventually was assigned the job as loader for his crew. Pat formed two close friendships in his military experience, Ed who he had known since basic training and Ben, the Texan on his crew, who became his pup-tent partner. After the successful conclusion of the Normandy Campaign, the 2nd Division was ordered to subdue the port city of Brest on the Breton Peninsula. A 220-mile road march brought the 2nd Division to the outskirts of the city. Brest was defended by a garrison of 36,000 German soldiers, the core of which were the vaunted 2nd Paratroop Division. After the surrender of the German garrison at Brest. Pat ́s unit had a short respite before embarking on another road march of 710 miles through liberated France to the German boarder. The 15th Battalion took defensive positions in the Schnee Eiffel forest. Here for the next month, the 15th Battalion ́s Artillery Batteries engaged in counter battery, observing and harassing fire missions in this sector of a thinly held front. Log bunkhouses and mess halls were constructed to combat the increasingly severe winter weather. German Buzz Bombs were observed here for the first time. Early December found the 9th CBT on the road heading north to begin an attack on the Siegfried Line. Pat and his buddies reluctantly gave up their comfortable quarters to a green division fresh from the States that relieved them. After heavy fighting and artillery bombardment, a critical crossroads on the Siegfried Line, Wehlerscheid, was taken, only to be given back the next day. The Germans had started their infamous winter offensive, The Battle of the Bulge. Our troops were ordered to withdraw several miles and establish a defensive line. This unprecedented withdraw
Over Lord is the fascinating story of how American tactical air power was developed by General Elwood "Pete" Quesada during World War II, including its decisive role in Operation OVERLORD and the liberation of Europe. Pete Quesada is one of World War II's unsung yet crucial heroes. With his famous "Ninth Tactical Air Command," Quesada established the best air-ground team in the European theater. he pioneered the use of radar in close air support operations, introducing weapons systems specifically geared to tactical operations. He nurtured new flying methods designed for the kind of precision bombing the battlefields of Europe demanded. And more than anything else, Pete Quesada championed efforts to model air and ground officers into a single fighting unit. His relationships with ground leaders like Generals Omar Bradley and "Lightning Joe" Collins were a model for the kind of interservice harmony that was essential for dislodging the entrenched German Army. At war's end everybody from General of the Army Dwight Eisenhower to ordinary infantrymen recognized Pete Quesada as the premier expert and dogged patron of close air support. Allied airplanes over the battlefields of Europe had undoubtedly shortened the war and saved many thousands of lives, and Pete Quesada came home to a hero's welcome in 1945. By then he was the personification of tactical air power. Indeed, he was its over lord. Unfortunately, Quesada's groundbreaking methods were all but forgotten after the war. As the Cold War deepened, Air Force leaders stressed the role of big bombers flying deep into enemy territory and renounced the importance of close air support missions. Quesada himself was shunted into jobs that were both illsuited to his fiery temperament and divorced from his wartime expertise in tactical aviation. Frustrated, he retired from the Air Force in 1951 at forty-seven years of age. Fortunately, the story of Quesada's innovative tactics did not end there for the American military. In Korea in the 1950s and Vietnam in the 1960s, U.S. servicemen struggled -- and died -- relearning and recreating the kinds of tactics that Quesada had made commonplace in 1944-45. Had the U.S. Air Force nurtured its capacity for close air support, those two conflicts may have unfolded differently. Since then, the Air Force has struggled for a better balance between its bombardment missions and its support functions. This is the definitive story of an extraordinary man, whose remarkable efforts to aid foot soldiers in World War II contributed significantly to the Allies' success. America's belated rediscovery of Quesada's precepts some forty years later in conflicts like Operation DESERT STORM only underscores the importance of Quesada's story.
An authentic account of one of the most pivotal battles of World War Two. The World War Two invasion known as D-Day was one of the largest military endeavours in history. It involved years of planning, total secrecy and not only soldiers but also sailors, paratroopers and many specialists. Acclaimed author Deborah Hopkinson weaves together the contributions of key players in D-Day in a masterful tapestry of official documents, personal narratives and archival photos to provide an action-packed and authentic account.
It was inevitable that the Allies would invade France in the summer of 1944: the Nazis just had to figure out where and when. This job fell to the Abwehr and several other German intelligence services. Between them they put over 30,000 personnel to work studying British and American signals traffic, and achieved considerable success in intercepting and decrypting enemy messages. They also sent agents to England – but they weren't to know that none of them would be successful. Until now, the Nazi intelligence community has been disparaged by historians as incompetent and corrupt, but newly released declassified documents suggest this wasn't the case – and that they had a highly sophisticated system that concentrated on the threat of an Allied invasion. Written by acclaimed espionage historian Nigel West, Codeword Overlord is a vital reassessment of Axis behaviour in one of the most dramatic episodes of the twentieth century.
From the No. 1 bestselling historian Max Hastings comes 'a masterly book, rich in insight, shrewd and weighty in judgement' Financial Times On June 6, 1944 – D-Day – British, Canadian and American troops staged the greatest amphibious landing in history. It was the start of Operation Overlord, the battle to take Normandy from the Third Reich. Over ten gruelling weeks, the Allies fought the entrenched German army, some infantry units suffering an almost 100 per cent casualty rate. In Overlord, acclaimed historian Max Hastings has drawn on eyewitness accounts of survivors from both sides, plus a wealth of previously untapped sources and documents, to write a gripping and authoritative account of the devastating fighting that paved the way for the liberation of north-west Europe. 'A book which combines serious historical and critical comment with brilliant reportage. He brings both the arguments between higher commanders and the fighting on the battlefield itself to life more vividly than previous books' Times Literary Supplement
The landing of Allied forces on the shores of Normandy on 6 June 1944 was the greatest amphibious invasion in history. Technology and innovation played crucial parts in the D-Day drama – from tank-carrying gliders, swimming tanks and the Mulberry harbors, to radio and radar aids that ensured landing craft arrived on the right beaches and combat aircraft overhead were controlled. D-Day Operations Manual describes the development, construction and use of a wide range of innovative machines, structures and systems, explaining their uses on D-Day and after, and revealing how they contributed to the success of 'Overlord.'
